Ah, Xbox Live is down, so I have time to post a message here . . .

I found out how to fix Oblivion! After perusing the Bethesda forums, I discovered it was a common problem: something about the hard drive memory cache. Anyway, if anyone else has the problem, simply hold down the "A" button at the Xbox 360 logo screen as the game is starting up to dump the cache files. It makes the game run sooo much smoother!

In other news, I received the latest issue of OXM. The Darkness looks amazing, though I'm a bit disenchanted from Gears of War. If you ask me, it's right in front of their faces that Oblivion is already the killer-app for the 360 . . . Gears of War won't become the next Halo; I can predict that. For one, it's in a third-person perspective. Two, they mentioned you can't blow through the game rambo-style - you'll die. In Halo, you could play rambo-style for the first two difficulties, and get all the death in the latter two. Hopefully, Gamespot won't be as swayed by graphics as they've shown so far in their review for Gears of War . . .

As said, The Darkness looks fantastic. Those darklings, or whatever, sound awesome. Just imagine . . . sending those into a building with only one entrance, while you wait outside to catch any fleeing civilian - and impale them with your tentacles! Mwahaha!

I'd also like to mention I bought two shirts of jinx.com. One says "Your skill in reading has increased by 1 point," which my friend - who plays Oblivion near-constantly - thinks is funny as something really, really funny. I also bought the "Wooo!" shirt, by Gamespot, which pictures a guy freaking out with a controller in his hands. The description was that we usually play games with a bored expression . . .

So, that's about it. I wonder when Xbox Live will be fixed?